Monthly Archives: September 2007

Tonight, I write about the Macanudo Cafe, which I read is America’s best selling cigar. I don’t know exactly which one it is, but its a white paper wrapper with green printing and a gold seal on it. There’s also a picture of what looks like Puerto Rico.
Before I lit it, it had a good draw but an interesting flavor. I can’t put my finger on exactly what that flavor was, but it was concerning. It was also almost like a sanitizer or mouthwash, but thankfully when lit it didn’t taste anything like that.
Just after being lit I was a bit wary of the flavor. If it had kept it I would not have liked it. It was a bit earthy for me, but again it didn’t keep that. The real flavor was again very mild. It did draw hotter than the Natural from before but it wasn’t uncomfortably hot. It lasted awhile and I was able to get it down to about the last inch and a quarter.
Overall it’s a good cigar, but be careful not to let it dry out. I could see this one getting pretty hot and uncomfortable.

Recently, I’ve gotten into cigars. I don’t really know how or why I got into them, but I did. I ordered a couple of sampler packs from cigarsinternational.com and I’m going to be reviewing them for you.
First up is the Clean Robusto Natural from Drew Estates. First, I should say that so far I’ve really liked or loved everything from Drew Estates and this one is no exception.
This cigar is very mild. It’s scent isn’t too strong, but very pleasant. I think to cigar is hand rolled because both ends of it have the twist point thing that candy wrappers have. After cutting it, the cigar had a good draw and lit well.
Overall the flavor of the cigar was very mild. It’s the most mild cigar I’ve had yet. Chris and Sean said that it didn’t have enough flavor for them but I enjoyed it. IT was so mild that I can’t really put a flavor on it. I can say that I enjoyed it though. As with all Drew Estate cigars I’ve had, it had a delicious, sweet lip flavor.
This cigar had a very cool draw. It didn’t get noticeably hot until about an inch left, which surprised me. Throughout smoking the cigar stayed cool to hold and firm. I didn’t feel like I would crush it at all. The smoke was also very smooth and not an sharp as others I’ve had.
Overall I’d put this cigar in my top five. What others are in there? I’ll be adding more reviews in the coming days.

This list is mainly for Mike about apps and things for the Mac that I use. But, you can use it too if you want.Quicksilver (free)- An app launcher and so much more.AppDelete (free) – A program that deletes programs and associated files and settings.GimmieSomeTune (free)- A app-plugin-add-on thing for iTunes that will get album artwork from Amazon.com if iTunes can’t find it.Armagetron (free) – Lightcycle.iEatBrainz (free) – An app that will tag untagged or improperly musicMacSaber (free) – The best program ever.Onyx (free) – Maintenace and things for your Mac.Seashore (free) – A nice simple image editor.Task List (free) – Keeps track of school work and stuff although I’ve found it rather annoying to use.Transmission (free) – A good, simple but powerful bittorrent client.SoundSource (free) – Its basically an icon that sits in the menu bar and allow me to change between outputs and inputs quickly, since my headset is connected through USB.Adium (free) – Multi-protocol messenger client.

That’s pretty much my list of software that I use. I’l make a list of podcasts (video and audio) that I’m subscribed to, but I’m not going to link cause I’m lazy. Go find them on iTunes.
Apple Quick Tip of the Week – Self explanatory.
Ask a Ninja – Funny funny stuff.
Bands Under the Radar – One of the ways I stay so cool.
Budget Health Nut – A cooking show for normal people
Comedy Insider – Cause everyone wants to be a standup comedian.
Coverville – How I find those crazy cover versions of songs.
Cranky Geeks – Guys sit at a table and try to talk about tech stuff.
Ctrl+Alt+Chicken – Another cooking show, but there hasn’t been a new one recently.
Daily Giz Wiz – A new gadget everyday.
Diggnation (high def video) – Kevin and Alex.
FIRSTcast – Gotta monitor our feed.
Indiefeed: Alternative/Modern Rock – Another way I stay so cool.
Leo Laporte The Tech Guy – Computer talk
MacBreak (video) – People doing neat things with Macs.
Macbreak weekly – It’s how I find new programs and stay up on my Apple news.
The Music Slut – A feed of an MP3 blog
Net @ nite – More nerd computer and internet talk
Pixel Perfect (high def) – The best photoshop tutorials out there.
Security now! – Nerd security talk
Systm – Shows about tech related stuff.
This Week In Law – Cause we all want to be lawyers too.
This week in Tech – THE podcast that started it all (they talk about tech)
Tiki Bar TV – Learn how to drink.
Totally Rad Show – Keep up with movies, games, tv, comics, and other geek stuff.
Try This At Home – Women doing weird things
Wild Chronicles – A shortened version of the National Geographic show.
Windows Weekly – I can’t just pay attention to Macs. I have to fix windows.
The 5 Minute Drill – Fantasy Football.

So that’s most everything. There’s one or two podcasts I didn’t mention cause they’re from The Hype Machine and customized to me. I hope that’s enough content to keep everyone busy for awhile.

Today is a a sad day and should be remembered forever. Today Jeff’s imperfections as a human being were realized. Yes, I got glasses.
I had been noticing some eye fatigue when I was reading. I figured since I stare at a computer screen, or read for more than 10 hours a day I should get that checked.
My prescription is pretty weak since their main purpose is to take some of the work away from my eyes to relieve the strain.

Where the hell is Osama Bin Laden? With all the crap people were talking about today (and I do think most of it is crap), how come no one was asking the real questions? If we can find Saddam in a hole near a river after less than a year, we should be able to find Osama after six.
I’m reading a book for one of my classes that is talking about accountability and the No Child Left Behind act. Politicians talk about holding teachers, schools and systems accountable for the performance of the children, yet they don’t hold anyone accountable for Bin Laden. Does that seem right?

This semester I’m going to have to do at least 60 hours worth of fieldwork at area schools on top of the normal stuff I do and classes.
One of the things the education people push is reflection and journal entries. For me, this in no problem because that’s what I’ve been doing for almost 5 years now (I’m old) with my blogging-like entries.
So, for this semester you may hear a lot about my schooling. I’m going to be posting these journal entries here for a few reasons. One, force of habit. Two, as a backup should something bad happen to Silver Surfer. Three, I’m hoping I get comments and questions from the cloud that will help me learn.

The other day I tried to edit my mom’s skydiving video with the new iMovie. I’ve used iMovie ’06 quite a bit for a project I’m working on, but this was the first time using the new one. It blows.
First, they got rid of the timeline view, which I think is essential to decent video editing. It displays things in a clear logical order. Now, instead they have a… I don’t even know what cause I couldn’t figure it out.
It does have a neat feature with all clips though. As you mouse over the clips, your arrow acts as a playhead and it will play them. If you move at the right speed it will play them like normal otherwise they’re either too fast or too slow. It also works in reverse.
Other than that I couldn’t figure out where to the clips and things so I went back to the old version and edited everything in about a minute. iMovie 06 is pretty sweet and easy to use.
Also, here’s the final product of my editing. Yes, my mom went skydiving.